Monsignor Roy Victor Peters
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SACRAMENTO DIOCESAN ARCHIVES Vol 5 Father John E Boll, Diocesan Archivist No 12 Monsignor Roy Victor Peters Native son of Sacramento Priest of the Diocese of Sacramento Chaplain and Colonel in the United States Army Pastor Emeritus of Saint Joseph Parish, Sacramento August 30, 1924 -- July 2, 2006 Roy Victor Peters was born in Sacramento on August 30, 1924, the firstborn of three children born to LeRoy V Peters and Ellen Nelson. He was baptized at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento. Roy’s two living sisters are Marge Ellen Albouze and June Peters. The family lived on 37th and C Streets in Sacramento and were members of Sacred Heart Parish on 39th and J Streets. ROY BEGINS HIS EDUCATION Roy began his elementary schooling at Theodore Judah Elementary School from 1930 to 1935. He then transferred to Sacred Heart parish school in 1935 and graduated in 1938. After the eighth grade, Roy began his freshman year at Christian Brothers in 1938 until 1941. Since Roy was an excellent student on the A honor roll, he was slated to receive the Christian Brothers High School Award for Excellence in his senior year. However, he decided to transfer to Saint Joseph College in Mountain View for his senior year in the 1941-42 and was ineligible for the award. Roy, on his bike, with a friend at Sacred Heart Church in 1938 Photo courtesy of Fr Bill Dinelli Saint Joseph College, Mountain View, CA 2 SAINT PATRICK SEMINARY, MENLO PARK In the fall of 1941, Roy began his first year of college at Saint Joseph College in Mountain View. Then in 1943, he and his classmates transferred to Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park. In 1945, he began his theological studies at Menlo Park and together with his classmate James Mulligan, Roy was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Sacramento by Bishop Robert J Armstrong on June 12, 1948 in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Roy was only 23 years of age when he was ordained a priest. 3 REMARKS MADE ABOUT ROY PETERS IN THE PATRICIAN MAGAZINE Taken from THE PATRICIAN, Vol XVIII, June 1948, NO 3 In the June 1948 issue of The Patrician, a publication of Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, the following article appeared about Roy Peters as he prepared for his ordination to the priesthood: “ROY VICTOR PETERS, fair-haired and of Swedish origin, was born in the heart of California on the 30th day of August, 1924. He began his education at Theodore Judah School, and in 1935 entered Sacred Heart Parochial School in Sacramento, where he became student body president in his last year. After three years at Christian Brothers’ High School, he went to Saint Joseph College in 1941 where his winning smile and friendly personality impressed both student and professor alike. Coming to Saint Patrick’s, he began with us the accelerated course of studies. During his years in the seminary, he served as upstairs sacristan and as president of the Saint Joseph College Alumni Association. He always has a song in his heart and will gladly vocalize it on the slightest provocation, a la Durante. He is a universal conversationalist and is ready to discuss anything from Thomas’ doctrine of analogy to the youngest rookie on the Sacramento Solons. He has blended a serious mind with a joyful disposition and a spirited enthusiasm, to form a warm and pleasing personality.” Photo by John E Boll Saint Patrick Seminary, Menlo Park, CA 4 Photo courtesy of June Peters Seminarian Roy Peters with classmate Jim Mulligan on the left FATHER ROY BEGINS MINISTRY Father Peters was first assigned to Saint Rose parish in Roseville in 1948 where he served for one year with Father William Daley who was pastor. In 1949, he was transferred to Saint Patrick parish in Angels Camp which was part of the Diocese of Sacramento at that time. During that year, he also ministered to the California Youth Authority’s Fricot Ranch School for Boys. In 1950, Father Roy was assigned to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento where he served until 1958 with Monsignor Raymond Renwald, rector of the Cathedral. The Cathedral assistants were Fathers Thomas Bracken, Patrick F O’Brien, and Sidney P Hall. Those living in residence at the Cathedral presbytery were Fathers William Serado, diocesan director of youth, and James D Poole, director of schools. Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament 5 NAMED PASTOR OF WEAVERVILLE After eight years working as an assistant at the Cathedral, Father Peters was named pastor of Saint Patrick Parish in Weaverville where he served three years, 1958-1961. Photo courtesy of June Peters, sister of Fr Roy Father Roy Peters, Pastor of Saint Patrick Parish, Weaverville Monsignor Russell Terra recalls that when Father Peters began his pastorate in Weaverville, the income of the parish was not enough to support him so he took a part-time job pumping gasoline at a local gas station in Weaverville. When diocesan officials found out about this, they were not pleased. Photo by John E Boll 2016 Saint Patrick Church, Weaverville 6 FATHER PETERS BECOMES A US ARMY CHAPLAIN After fourteen years as a priest in the diocese, Father Peters left Sacramento on January 8, 1962 to become a chaplain in the United States Army for a three-year stint. That three-year stint as an Army chaplain became an exciting life-long career for him. In a rare holiday leave in December 1981 to visit his mother Ellen and sisters Marge and June, Father Peters was interviewed by Valerie Christiansen, associate editor of the Catholic Herald. Valerie began her article by saying “Father Peters was an expansive, outgoing person with an easy manner and ready smile.” He quickly opened up to share his experiences as a priest in an unusual apostolate. The following section comes, in part, from that interview Army Chaplain Roy Peters in 1963 THE LIFE OF AN ARMY CHAPLAIN During his 19 years in the Army in 1981, Father Peters served draftees and conscientious objectors, qualified as a paratrooper, did two tours of combat duty in Vietnam, was decorated several times, spent 6 months with the Green Berets (Special Forces), served as pastor of the Pentagon, arranged funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, ministered in a Veterans’ Administration hospital, served as commandant of the Army’s chaplain school and held the rank of colonel since 1974. Father Peters was also one of two official Army representatives – together with two representatives each from the Navy, Air Force, and Veterans’ Administration – to the Military Ordinariate, the non-territorial diocese which embraces Catholics in all branches of the armed services, and chairman of the military priests’ senate, the Advisory Council to Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York who was bishop of the Military Ordinariate of the United States. A PRIEST LIKE ALL OTHER PRIESTS And always, Father Peters said, he is a priest doing “exactly the same as any other priest in any other parish” -- celebrating Mass, administering the sacraments, providing counseling and other forms of priestly assistance. To those who would find something contradictory, or at least inconsistent, in the voluntary service of a priest – whom many would categorize as a “man of peace” – in an organization whose primary preoccupation is with war or potential war, he says, “A lot of people don’t understand what a military priest is – simply a priest with a military parish.” “That’s where the people are,” he says. “There are priests in jails, in the ghetto of leper colonies – because there are people who need them. There’s nobody who hates war more than someone 7 who’s seen it – and I hate war intensely.” He stresses that military actions are determined by a civilian command – the Secretary of Defense and the secretaries of the various services, in compliance with the will of the Congress and orders from the President as commander-in-chief. IN THE MILITARY, THERE IS NO WAY TO GET IN A RUT Father Peters describes his life as a military chaplain as “a very interesting experience,” offering great variety and great opportunity “to be what I want to be.” Chaplain personnel are reassigned every three years and hold during their careers a number of different kinds of jobs in the field, in hospitals, and at various bases and installations in the US and around the world. There’s no way you can get in a rut,” he says, flashing a warm grin. No “ruts” – just all the responsibility and challenge that a man can handle, right from the start. FATHER PETERS’ MILITARY ASSIGNMENTS Father Peters’ first assignment as an Army chaplain was to Fort Ord, near Monterey, where he ministered to the needs of the Catholics among the three to four thousand men going through basic training there, many of whom were draftees. He celebrated Mass, heard confessions, gave marriage preparation instruction, and met with conscientious objectors. In 1964, at the age of 39, he was sent through paratrooper training at Fort Benning, Georgia and then assigned as chaplain to the 101st Airborne Division, the famous “Screaming Eagles” of D- Day, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His work at Fort Campbell entailed providing Catholic coverage for three to four thousand Catholic military personnel and their families, plus organizing Protestant and Jewish services by bringing in chaplains of those faiths assigned to other units – “pluralism in action,” he calls it. “Ecumenism, as sanctioned by Vatican II, is not anything new for us.” Photo from the “101st Airborne Division Website 101st Airborne Division Parachute Jump 8 It took him seven weeks, slightly over the usual four, to become qualified “to jump out of airplanes” as a paratrooper together with young soldiers half his age.